Keynote speech during workshop about Caribbean World Heritage Sites in the light of today’s global challenges.
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The advent of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has had and is having a major impact on Indonesian cultural resource management, and on the safeguarding methods of its tangible and intangible cultural heritages. Despite varied levels and visible gaps between rural and urban regions in terms of technology usage, innovative initiatives have been created, which correspond to the needs and expectations of a technology-savvy public. As a starting point, a number of public institutions dealing with tangible cultural heritage (e.g. museums, palaces, temples, World Heritage Sites (WHS) do use innovative digital tools in order to communicate to various audiences, as well as to enrich visitors' experience, especially taking into consideration young generations. This paper will firstly examine the role of ICTs in intangible cultural heritage (ICH) (e.g. Batik, Wayang puppet theatre, etc.); secondly, the authors will explain how ICTs can help to communicate and promote the values, history, and significances of ICH products, both for locals and tourists, with the goal of raising awareness on cultural identity. However, the knowledge of ICH still requires contacts with its own communities and is vulnerable, as it can be exposed to excessive cultural commoditization through e-platforms. This study aims at giving an overview and some examples of digital interventions for cultural heritage communication implemented by various stakeholders in Indonesia. In addition, this paper analyses to what extent a participatory approach engaging local communities, academics, private sectors, NGOs and the government, can ensure higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency, hence supporting the conservation of UNESCO tangible/ICH in Indonesia. This paper aims at: (1) presenting the development of digital heritage platforms in Indonesia; (2) providing a grid of analysis of digital heritage knowledge platforms dedicated to UNESCO tangible and ICH in forms of websites and mobile apps.
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The role of Jewish heritage for the city of Belmonte.
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Coastal and marine cultural heritage (CMCH) is at risk due to its location and its often indefinable value. As these risks are likely to intensify in the future, there is an urgent need to build CMCH resilience. We argue that the current CMCH risk management paradigm narrowly focuses on the present and preservation. This tends to exclude debates about the contested nature of resilience and how it may be achieved beyond a strict preservationist approach. There is a need, therefore, to progress a broader and more dynamic framing of CMCH management that recognises the shift away from strict preservationist approaches and incorporates the complexity of heritage’s socio-political contexts. Drawing on critical cultural heritage literature, we reconceptualise CMCH management by rethinking the temporality of cultural heritage. We argue that cultural heritage may exist in four socio-temporal manifestations (extant, lost, dormant, and potential) and that CMCH management consists of three broad socio-political steering processes (continuity, discontinuity, and transformation). Our reconceptualisation of CMCH management is a first step in countering the presentness trap in CMCH management. It provides a useful conceptual framing through which to understand processes beyond the preservationist approach and raises questions about the contingent and contested nature of CMCH, ethical questions around loss and transformation, and the democratisation of cultural heritage management.
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In september 2019 startte op Instituut Archimedes, de lerarenopleiding van Hogeschool Utrecht, het initiatief Cultural Heritage and Education. Dit project stelt zich ten doel jongeren (elf tot veertien jaar) door middel van educatie bewust te maken van het belang van cultureel erfgoed in hun leefomgeving en het behoud ervan voor toekomstige generaties.
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Valuation of heritage buildings is usually performed by architectural-historical experts, who use a typology of heritage values based on conservation philosophy. Increasingly, social and spirituality values are included in heritage assessment frameworks.What happens to valuation systems when external events influence the chances of survival of heritage buildings, such as earthquakes induced by gas extraction in the Netherlands? While the mining company uses a narrow economic perspective on value, the public fears for loss of character of their historic towns. New safety regulations constitute a new and even stronger threat to heritage buildings. Recently, a heritage assessment framework was published, to help with value assessments in the affected region. In this paper, we compare experts’ and laypersons’ values by analyzing the new assessment framework as well as public documents. We conclude that heritage value assessments should incorporate social values, including memories and symbolic meanings, to create a balanced valuation system.
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This article attempts to explore the main impulses that might have led to the destruction of Buddha statues by Taliban in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan. Drawing on existing literature, and anecdotal evidence, this article suggests that the main impulses that have led to destruction are rather linked to the overall political context of that time (i.e., political iconoclasm) rather than to pure Islamic iconoclasm or an explicit condition of disharmony in heritage (i.e., dissonant heritage). First, the Taliban did not consider the statues as "their" cultural heritage. The act of destruction, therefore, cannot be subscribed to the Afghan cultural dynamics but rather to the political-religious ideology imported by Taliban from outside of the country. Secondly, it seemed that Mullah Omar was viewing the statues as a revenue source at the beginning and as a political bargain chip at the end. In both circumstances, religion seems not to have played the main role. Lastly, the destruction seems a political iconoclasm-that is, a political exploitation, if not a direct political act. The Taliban and especially their external allies were very well aware of the consequences of the act of destruction. It seems implausible to suggest that there were no religion and/or culture in play when ordering the destruction of the statues. The latter is the least what this article aims for. However, to conclude that the destruction was solely triggered by theological and cultural factors might also be improbable. The author does not, in any way, attempt to rationalize the act of destruction, let alone justify the barbaric act.
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City growth threatens sustainable development of cities. Over the past decades increased urbanization has created more pressure - not only on the suburban outskirts - but also in the inner core of the cities, putting important environmental issues such as water management and cultural heritage under stress. Cultural heritage, either standing monuments or archaeological remains, is internationally recognized as an important legacy of our history. The European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage incorporates concepts and ideas that have become accepted practice in Europe. Conservation and enhancement of archaeological heritage is one of the goals of urban planning policies. One of the key objectives of the European policy is to protect, preferably in-situ, archaeological remains buried in the soil or seabed and to incorporate archaeological heritage into spatial planning policies. Conflicts with prior uses and unappreciated impacts on other subsurface resources, amongst them archaeological heritage, make use of underground space in cities suboptimal. In terms of ecosystem services, the subsurface environment acts either as a carrier of archaeological heritage in situ (stewardship) or supports above-ground cultural heritage. Often, it’s not enough to protect the heritage site or monument itself: new developments outside a specific protected area can lead to changes in groundwater level, and cause serious damage to heritage buildings and archaeological deposits. This paper presents good practices in cultural heritage management and the use of subsurface knowledge in urban areas.
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Ameland, a Dutch Wadden Sea island, is blessed with many historical buildings, such as captains’ houses, which make up picturesque townscapes. Together with the attractions of sandy beaches, these quaint villages attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Ameland also has the ambitious goal to become self-sufficient in renewable energy. Our (practical) aim is to support local stakeholders with the design of energy transition strategies that take account of heritage values.Theoretically, we rely on a layered framework, where meanings and values of individual buildings, townscapes, landscapes, local historical narratives, as well as economic and social values can find a place. In our project, we encountered value conflicts and will discuss how these conflicts can be resolved. In this respect, we refer to the concept of a value hierarchy.We investigate heritage values held by inhabitants of Ameland. What aspects of their built environment do they value in particular? How are specific building types, historical townscapes and landscapes evaluated? What impact of energy measures and scenarios do they find acceptable? To this end, we developed an online questionnaire, which was distributed by local stakeholders. We found a range of heritage and sustainability values held by the inhabitants and stakeholders of Ameland. In the discussion section we will return to the conflicting values in the Ameland case. We find that the presence of heritage values leads to the specification of conditions for the application of energy measures; these should be as invisible as possible. Thus, to combine the values of heritage and sustainability, setting norms and requirements for the implementation of new energy measures is advisable.
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Heritage communication is more and more integrating digital media, which help to offer a wider and deeper understanding of heritage and its values. In particular, intangible cultural heritage (ICH) can find in information and communication technologies a powerful ally to share its facets and different dimensions, through multimedia technologies (especially videos), storytelling, and several other applications like mixed realities and artificial intelligence. Such media can help not only to provide access to information and knowledge, but also to enrich the experience of people exposed to such heritage, and to promote a deep connection between the heritage itself and interested persons. This paper presents the process through which goals and needs to communicate and promote Indonesian Batik textile heritage, which has been inscribed by UNESCO among the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2009, have been collected and transformed into the design of digital communication outlets, namely a website and a mobile app. Such process has encompassed an extensive analysis of the presence itself of Batik in digital media through benchmarking, as well as the elicitation of needs and requirements of relevant stakeholders and target audiences, through in-depth interviews and surveys. The design has been done ensuring at every step that it was considering and integrating, as much as possible, the results of the previous analyses. While presenting the iWareBatik case, which has been successfully implemented and launched, with the support of the highest Indonesian cultural-related institutions, the paper describes in detail the used methodology, hence providing an itinerary, which can be adopted by other similar projects.
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